§ 100. Mr. Hector Hughesasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies if he will issue a White Paper giving details of the present position of agricultural and other technical education amongst the native populations in the British colonies in East and West Africa; and what steps are being taken to increase the respective standards.
Mr. Creech JonesI am sending my hon. Friend a copy of a statement recently prepared on the facilities for technical education in the African colonies. As to agricultural education, gardening is part of the curriculum of primary schools and some schools also conduct mixed farming projects. All except the smallest Colonies maintain institutions where Africans are trained for posts in the Departments of Agriculture. Makerere College and Yaba College provide diploma courses in agriculture and some selected men are sent to the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture in Trinidad. Facilities for agricultural and technical training will be expanded as a result of the development programmes now being put into effect. I fully appreciate the great importance of this type of education, but I doubt whether the publication of a White Paper is called for. I am, however, placing in the Library of the House a copy of the statement mentioned above.